Woodpigeon: Treasury Library Canada

While the British woodpigeon is a common and cumbersome bird, the eight-piece Canadian collective named after it is a more rarified creature. Led by Mark Hamilton, a singer-songwriter who recently came back to Calgary after living in Scotland, his group's second album is a 14-track tribute to the pleasures of home. Snow swirls and summer glows, while guitars, violins and banjos weave golden figures of sound, and Hamilton's vocals recall the tender touches of Elliott Smith or Sufjan Stevens. Some may shy at his slushier lyrics about girls in clocktowers and lovers wanting to fly into each other's arms, but there is enough strength behind these sentiments, and enough muscle in the band's heady harmonies, to make this an inspiring meditation on exile and return.